Standard Banks CEO, Sim Tshabalala, has declared that the bank will not be setting aside any cash for a potential Competition Tribunal fine as its internal investigations had not revealed any wrongdoing, according to Business Day.<\/p>\n
Tshabalala noted the bank currently employs over 55,000 employees, while only three had been implicated in the report.<\/p>\n
In addition, Tshabalala believed that the bank had no grounds to suspend two of the traders and that a formal internal enquiry and dismissal proceedings would have to take place.<\/p>\n
According to Tshabalala, the third employee implicated, Jason Katz, had already entered into a plea bargain with US authorities in December 2016, which was unrelated to the period of time he worked as a Standard Bank\u00a0employee.<\/p>\n
Katz had already left the bank in June 2010, he said.<\/p>\n
In February 2017, three South African banks were implicated among 17 banking groups in \u2018widespread\u2019 collusion relating to the the price-fixing of the rand.<\/p>\n
Following an almost two-year investigation into the matter, the Competition\u00a0Commission confirmed it had officially referred a collusion case to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution.<\/p>\n
It subsequently issued a statement noting that Barclays Africa (Absa) was unlikely to face penalties due to it coming forward as a whistle-blower against the other banks involved in the price-fixing.<\/p>\n